Product Description

The companion volume to the public television series Julia and Jacques Cooking at Home

Two legendary cooks, Julia Child and Jacques Pépin, invite us into their kitchen and show us the basics of good home cooking.
        What makes this book unique is the richness of information they offer on every page, as they demonstrate techniques (on which they don't always agree), discuss ingredients, improvise, balance flavors to round out a meal, and conjure up new dishes from leftovers. Center stage in these pages are carefully spelled-out recipes flanked by Julia's comments and Jacques's comments--the accumulated wisdom of a lifetime of honing their cooking skills. Nothing is written in stone, they imply. And that is one of the most important lessons for every good cook.
        So sharpen your knives and join in the fun as you learn to make . . .

        *--Appetizers--from traditional and instant grav-lax to your own sausage in brioche and a country pâté
        *--Soups--from New England chicken chowder and onion soup gratinée to Mediterranean seafood stew and that creamy essence of mussels, billi-bi
        *--Eggs--omelets and "tortillas"; scrambled, poached, and coddled eggs; eggs as a liaison for sauces and as the puffing power for soufflés
        *--Salads and Sandwiches--basic green and near-Niçoise salads; a crusty round seafood-stuffed bread, a lobster roll, and a pan bagnat
        *--Potatoes--baked, mashed, hash-browned, scalloped, souffléd, and French-fried
        *--Vegetables--the favorites from artichokes to tomatoes, blanched, steamed, sautéed, braised, glazed, and gratinéed
        *--Fish--familiar varieties whole and filleted (with step-by-step instructions for preparing your own), steamed en papillote, grilled, seared, roasted, and poached, plus a classic sole meunière and the essentials of lobster cookery
        *--Poultry--the perfect roast chicken (Julia's way and Jacques's way); holiday turkey, Julia's deconstructed and Jacques's galantine; their two novel approaches to duck
        *--Meat--the right technique for each cut of meat (along with lessons in cutting up), from steaks and hamburger to boeuf bourguignon and roast leg of lamb
        *--Desserts--crème caramel, profiteroles, chocolate roulade, free-form apple tart--as you make them you'll learn all the important building blocks for handling dough, cooking custards, preparing fillings and frostings
        And much, much more . . .

        Throughout this richly illustrated book you'll see Julia's and Jacques's hands at work, and you'll sense the pleasure the two are having cooking together, tasting, exchanging ideas, joshing with each other, and raising a glass to savor the fruits of their labor. Again and again they demonstrate that cooking is endlessly fascinating and challenging and, while ultimately personal, it is a joy to be shared.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #119460 in Books
• Published on: 1999-09-14
• Released on: 1999-09-14
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 448 pages

Amazon.com
Julia and Jacques Cooking at Home is the companion volume to Julia Child and Jacques Pepin's PBS series of the same name. The setup works like this: the two opinionated TV cooks confront different ingredients on each show, then make their way through to the finished dishes that make up a meal. The recipes reveal themselves along the way.

What's most important here--and it shows up in the cookbook--is that there is no one way to cook. The point of the book isn't to follow recipes, but to cook from the suggestions. And Julia and Jacques have many, many suggestions when it comes to home cooking in the French style. And many tips, for that matter.

Take chicken, for example. "Not everything I do with my roast chicken is necessarily scientific," Julia says. "For instance, I always give my bird a generous butter massage before I put it in the oven. Why? Because I think the chicken likes it--and, more important, I like to give it." Julia sets her chicken on a V-rack in a roasting pan in a 425-degree oven that she then turns down to 350 after 15 minutes. Jacques roasts his bird at 425, on its side, right in the pan. "To me," he says, "it's very important to place the chicken on its side for all but 10 minutes of roasting." After 25 minutes he turns his chicken over, careful not to tear the skin, and lowers the heat to 400. The bird finishes breast-side up for the last 15 to 20 minutes.

This book is divided into chapters on appetizers, soups, eggs, salads and sandwiches, potatoes, vegetables, fish, poultry, meats, and desserts. The she said-he said format works throughout, and a lot of what's said you may realize you have heard before. There are no big surprises here. But it's good fun, a decent reminder of some of the classics of French tradition, and a chance to loosen up and simply cook at home with a couple of masters--one to the right of you, one to the left. You decide which hamburger's the right one for you. --Schuyler Ingle

From Publishers Weekly
Culinary grande dame Child and master chef P?pin define "the basics of fine food that looks good, tastes the way it should and is a total pleasure to eat." Chapters are organized into appetizers, soups, eggs, salads and sandwiches, potatoes, vegetables, fish, poultry, meats and desserts. Based on the vast experience of these chefs, the book takes a she says/he says approach to home-style French cooking: While Julia finds the dark digestive vein in shrimp "ugly" and automatically removes it, Jacques considers it "perfectly good protein to eat"; Julia prefers seasoning food with white pepper, but Jacques uses black pepper, and so forth. Child and P?pin recycle familiar Franco-American classics, like Omelets, Souffl?s, French Fries, Sole Meuni?re, Roast Chicken, Steak Au Poivre and Cr?me Br?l?e, with a contemporary sleight-of-hand (e.g., stocks that can be made within an hour; a microwave method for clarified butter). Eschewing today's trendy global pantry, recipes emphasize fresh, seasonal ingredients. There is also no shortage of shopping, preparation and technique tips from the pros, such as Jacques's perspective on buying a good steak: "it's more useful to have knowledge about cuts of meat than a lot of money." A charismatic tag team, veterans Child and P?pin illuminate novice and seasoned home cooks alike, gently reminding readers that "eating, as well as cooking, should be pleasurable and guiltless." First serial to Gourmet; Good Cook Book Club main selection; author tour. (Sept.) FYI: Cooking at Home is based on a forthcoming 22-part PBS series.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
What could be better than seeing these two incomparable chefs cooking together in Julia's kitchen and having a wonderful time while they're at it? This is the companion volume to the authors' new PBS series, premiering in October, but there are many "bonus" recipes here, including some that had to be cut from the series because of time limitations and others created especially for this book. For each show, the two chefs started out with ideas and ingredients but no set recipes, so they improvised as they went along, cooking a lot of their favorite traditional dishes and coming up with new ones as well. The two didn't always agreeAeach recipe has one sidebar from Julia, another from Jacques, presenting each one's take on the dish and personalized tips. Dozens of boxes throughout the text provide information on a wide variety of topics, from "Julia on Getting a Good Chicken" to "P?pin Peels a Pepper," and the more than 300 color photos show both techniques step by step and many of the finished dishes. An essential purchase, of course.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Customer Reviews

Finally, a cookbook that fully explains how to do a recipe
I am skeptical of cookbooks based on TV shows; I find them to be a waste of time and money. This one, however, is a happy exception. It is one of the few cookbooks aimed at the home cook that will make you a better cook. It is an excellent resource for home cooking.

It is a very friendly book for the home cook and easy to use. No fancy tools that only a professional chef can afford, no exotic ingredients that can only be found at one specific ethnic deli in Manhattan, no complicated multipart recipes that require several prep cooks backstage to pull off correctly. There are only a couple of recipes the home cook might have problems with (galantine, soufflé, roulade). Here is a 5# sack of potatoes or a whole chicken; OK, smarty pants, what is the home cook suppose to do with them? How do you cook a steak? This book will tell you.

The TV show was rather unusual. When you tape a cooking show series, the recipes and script are all predetermined months in advance. Here, the shows were all done extemporaneously, and the cookbook written after, not before the TV taping. They started with just ingredients and went from there. They chose the best way or favorite recipes with the home cook in mind that are simple and easy to do. There was also no attempt to `cover' all of the culinary bases, just their favorite home recipes; for example, they have recipes for mussels and lobster, but there are none for cakes or pies (If you discount the roulade and galette).

Most of the photos are not from the tapings, but taken during the writing of the book. The main recipes and texts were written by a third co-author. Recipes or comments (which are often longer than the recipes) by Jacques or Julia are clearly labeled and even color-coded. And, naturally, the 2 often do not agree. Some recipes have 2 different versions, one from each person (pie dough; crepes; scrambled eggs, poached eggs). There are several mini essays on various ingredients.

There are many culinary gems. How about Steak Diane, or the original version of Caesar salad (no, there are no anchovies)? When was the last time you made crepes? How about 3 different recipes for gravlax, depending on how much time you have? Most recipes span several pages and have explanations and related information. Hollandaise gets 4 pages, mayonnaise gets 5, and beef bourguignon gets 6. So, there is no excuse for not understanding a recipe or being unsure of how to do a step.

Perfect!
This book is good for beginners as well as intermediate cooks...since it not only provides basic information about cooking, but gives various tips and methods which intermediate level cooks will appreciate. I loved the recipe for american potato salad that julia gave...it came out exactly like it should! As for the pie/tart dough that Jacques gave, it was heaven;y....crumbly and flaky all at the same time! Love this book!

A reliable reference with absolutely dependable recipes
I'm surprised by how often I turn to this cookbook, but I shouldn't be. The two authors are household words, and they earned their reputation by making "fine cooking" accessible.

Like the PBS show on which the cookbook is based (but don't worry if you missed it), this book is a professional repartee between two accomplished cooks who have been comfortable friends for decades. And that "chemistry" shows through in marvelous ways. The book is fun, entertaining, and educational to read... oh yeah, and it has great recipes, too.

Each author takes a different riff on the same theme, whether it's meat stock or salmon. Even when they don't supply two "competing" recipes, they offer notes on each others' techniques. For example, Julia's notes alongside Jacques' onion soup discuss the importance of cooking the onions properly and thoroughly; Jacques talks about ways to create variations on the recipe.

There are some brilliant recipes in this book, which range from the simple but elegant (salmon cooked inside thin layers of potato, which alone is a reason to spring for a mandoline), to the time consuming but easy (the best pot roast recipe I've ever encountered is in here), to the "gosh we should make that someday" fantasies (will I ever bone a turkey?!) to the deliriously simple but absolutely reliable. The last category include Jacques' vinegarette recipe and how to make it to last in the fridge. Sure, I must have 40 vinegarettes, but I always know that _this_ one works.

I haven't made every recipe here (though it's a goal I might enjoy), but every single one of them is a success. And with excellent food photography, you can follow the food's process from cutting up a chicken to the glorious result. The recipes are a mixture of American and French, encompassing everything from the aforementioned pot roast to steak au poivre to stuffed artichoke bottoms. They range from sandwiches (even your basic hamburger) to sauces (this is the Hollandaise recipe I use) to a turkey galantine (which I love reading about but would never have the nerve to try).

I absolutely love this book. I think you will, too.